 ORIPHIEL Troubles Coming Down the Line Don't take Richard Seddon's statements too seriously. Our focus is on Rudolf Steiner's teachings. Seddon is useful to us mainly because he provides an example of the sort of “scholarship” produced by Steiner's admirers. This is the thinking and worldview Waldorf schools lure kids toward. I know that everything I've reported so far on this site has been crystal clear. The following report may vary from that ideal — it may not make a lot of sense. This comes with the territory in SteinerWorld. Picking up our story where it left off: “From the early twenty-third to the late twenty-sixth century the ruling Archangel is Oriphiel, the Archangel of the Saturn sphere.” [1] This spells trouble. Oriphiel last presided over the decline of Greek civilization. Next he will preside over our impending misery. But before we learn our doom, let's pause a moment. Oriphiel presides over “the Saturn sphere.” Does this have any comprehensible meaning? Whenever Rudolf Steiner and friends speak of “spheres,” they toy with our patience. For instance: “The Saturn sphere is really the last one that we ... enter, since Uranus and Neptune do not enter our picture.” [2] This statement contains either more or less than meets the eye: • Saturn, as a planet, is certainly spherical. • As a sphere of influence, Saturn may perhaps be considered quite round. • Then again, Saturn might be considered an evolutionary stage, which comes around and goes around. • Or (and this is closer to the nub) "sphere" is a term used, in some contexts, by mystics when they think they are talking about something but really aren't. So don't worry if you are unfamiliar with some of the terms Steiner and I toss around. This is what reading Steiner is like — constantly ducking and spinning around as weird terms and concepts fly past. Just remember, you don't really need to keep everything straight since so much of it is nonsense.  The very most ancient stage of earthly evolution was, according to Steiner, “Old Saturn,” although the use of this moniker gives us almost zero information. “[W]hen we contemplate the past, present, and future of the earth's evolution, we may speak of the Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan evolutions.” [3] Each evolutionary stage or “sphere” gets reiterated in each successive stage/sphere, BUT the names of the planets, used in this way, is fully as wobbly s the use of terms like "sphere." “It must be distinctly understood that these occult terms are not to be associated in any way with the names used to designate the members of our present solar system.” [4] One might wonder why Steiner applied inapplicable names to things, and why in other passages he used the same words in ordinary ways — associating the "sphere" of "Saturn" with, for example, the planet Saturn — but that's what makes occult terms occult. Leaving some of these mysteries for another time, let's get back to our immediate future, the 23rd to 26th Centuries, when Oriphiel will loom large. The impending primacy of Oriphiel is bad news: “The Age of Michael began in 1879. After that comes the Age of Oriphiel, when great conflicts will rage among human beings.” [5] Oriphiel, like Michael, is an archangel — although, somewhat confusingly, “Oriphiel” is not among the archangels mentioned in the Bible. He isn't listed in the Encyclopedia Britannica. He isn't even... [6] Nonetheless, there’s a lot of trouble coming. The Antichrist will be palmed off as Christ, but true Christians (by which Seddon/Steiner mean Anthroposophists, who are really not Christians at all) [7] will see through this since they know that when Christ returns, He will not reappear in the physical realm but in the etheric realm (a spiritual realm above our physical level of existence but lower than the astral realm, if that helps). Huge strife will grip the Earth for six millennia as evildoers try to install Ahriman on Christ's stead, as it were: “Conflict and suffering are therefore inevitable. The Antichrist will even be called ‘Christ’ by his followers. But all true Christians, knowing that Christ does not incarnate again in physical form but only in the etheric, will oppose him [i.e., the Antichrist] with all the strength at their command, a strength that will be enhanced by practice. This is a very real battle to replace Christ by Ahriman [a terrible demon] for the remaining 6000 years of the Post-Atlantean epoch.” [8] Hard to joke about that. Big, big trouble. The "Post-Atlantean epoch" is the large-bore evolutionary period in which we currently live. As Seddon just reported, it will end on or about the year 8000 AD. In the meantime, we will pass through the end of our current, small-bore evolutionary period (the "Age" in which we currently live) and two more. The inappropriate language that Steiner used for these periods can trip us up just as much as the inappropriate language he used for other stuff, so pay close attention. The large-bore periods I'm referring to now are called, by Steiner, Epochs. Each Epoch (or Great Epoch) consists of seven Ages. These Ages are also referred to at Cultural Ages and/or Cultural Epochs. The term "Epoch" is what can cause particular confusion — Steiner uses it for two different very sorts of time periods: very long (Epochs) and sort of long (Cultural Epochs). Cultural Epochs are subcategories of our current Great Epoch. (Potentially causing further confusion is the the knowledge that even the Great Epochs are brief compared to the much, much longer periods of which they themselves are subcategories. I'll skip the details for now, but realize that the enormous periods such as Old Saturn are far, far longer than Great Epochs.) We currently live in the fifth Great Epoch, which Steiner called the Post-Atlantean Epoch. Within this Great Epoch, we have already passed through four Cultural Epochs, and we are now in the fifth, which may be termed the Fifth Post-Atlantean Cultural Epoch. (Another point of potential confusion — Steiner's works are full of them — is that the term "Post-Atlantean" is attached to either or both sorts of epochs, Great and Cultural, now and again.) To winnow all this down. We are currently in the fifth Cultural Epoch within the fifth Great Epoch. When we complete the fifth, sixth, and seventh Cultural Epochs, we will thereby complete the fifth Great Epoch and move on to the first stage of the sixth Great Epoch. OK? Don't worry. This is all nonsense anyway. The coming Cultural Epochs in the fifth Great Epoch are the Russian Age and the American Age. The Russian Age will run from 3573 AD until 5733 AD. [9] Then we'll enter the American Age, which will culminate — on or about the year 8000 AD — in a cataclysm similar to the ones that destroyed Lemuria and Atlantis. This will be conclusion of the turmoil that awaits us in the next six millennia, starting soon. Brace for the following venomous statement. A major part of the strife to come will be, in essence, a race war. Whites are the good guys (this is embarrassing; like Steiner, I'm white; but facts are facts, or so Steiner said). Whites are getting more and more spiritual, Steiner said, whereas nonwhites are trying to hang onto previous, less spiritual times when the spiritual and the physical were kept separate. Consequently, for the good of all, we whites will have to bash all you nonwhites: “White mankind is still on the path of absorbing spirit more deeply into its essence. Yellow mankind is on the path of preserving the [prior] period when the spirit was kept away from the body, when the spirit could only be sought outside of the physical human being. But the result will have to be that the transition from the fifth cultural epoch [i.e., the present] to the sixth cultural epoch cannot happen differently than as a violent fight between white mankind and colored mankind in the most varied areas. And world history will consist of those events that will lead to these battles between white and colored mankind, until the great fight between white and colored mankind has been brought about.” [Rudolf Steiner, DIE GEISTIGEN HINTERGRÜNDE DES ERSTEN WELTKRIEGES {The Spiritual Background of the First World War} (Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1974), p. 38, translated by Roger Rawlings, 2010.] [10]  Don't be misled by Steiner's use of the term "yellow" (in the original German, “die gelbe Menschheit”). Steiner didn't mean that we whites will only have to fight yellow people (presumably Asians). He broadened his terms immediately to include all "colored" people (“der farbigen Menschheit”). In any case, he often used the terms "yellow" and "colored" interchangeably. In any additional case, Steiner often spoke of all-embracing requirements for humanity as a whole, which generally require the rejection of lower human strains of all sorts (generally inferior races of all sorts) in order for the better sorts to move onward and upward. The struggles to come will involve all humans who are still caught in earthly, physical manifestation. If Steiner was choosing his words carefully (something he didn't always do, as we've seen), combat will start soon. Note that in the passage above, Steiner refers to cultural epochs (in the original German, "Kulturepoche"). Specifically, he dates the "violent fight" as coming during the transition from the fifth Cultural Epoch ("fünften Kulturepoche") and the sixth Cultural Epoch ("sechste Kulturepoche"). So, all too soon, it will be upon us. And for the good of all, we whites must prevail. Or so Steiner said. Sorry. Steiner's views, not mine. Let's move on. — Roger Rawlings
Some illustrations on each page are closely connected to the essay on that page; others are not — they provide general context.  Detail, Rudolf Steiner portrait [Kessinger].  Anthroposophical art — a paean to Oriphiel with a depiction of the mystic Saturn column designed by Rudolf Steiner. Other mystic indications are best left unmentioned. [Monica Gold.]  According to Steiner, this is the occult symbol for the Antichrist, aka Sorat: two horns above, a baleful stinger below. “Sorat has meant ‘Demon of the Sun’ since ancient times. Every star has its good spirit — its intelligence — and its evil spirit — its demon. The adversary of the good powers of the sun is called Sorat. Christ was always the representative of the sun, namely, the intelligence of the Sun. Sorat is, then, the adversary of Christ Jesus. The sign for Sorat looks like this ... two horns like a lamb ... barb or sting.” [Rudolf Steiner, READING THE SIGNS OF THE APOCALYPSE (SteinerBooks, 1993), p. 19. R.R. sketch, 2010, based on the one in the book.]
An archangel [Russian icon].  War [http://www.fromoldbooks.org/].  Steiner professed the ability to see the future of humanity, the Earth, and the solar system. And yet he seemed to know almost nothing about humanity, the Earth, and the solar system — or, at a minimum, we can say that no one has produced any real evidence to support the statements Steiner made on these (or any other) subjects. Here is the Earth, as it really is — seen from a point a few miles above the surface of the Moon. You are looking at the planet we inhabit, in the solar system we inhabit. This is reality — we have a vast accumulation of real information about our real home and the system in which it really is located. Preferring fantasies such as those Steiner offered is everyone's right — but (if you follow me) it is clearly wrong. There is truth and there is fantasy. The photo you see here shows truth; Steiner's doctrines are something else. People in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries may have had an excuse for believing nonsense doctrines of the sort Steiner offered. Scientific knowledge was sketchier in those days. But people today, in the twenty-first century, really have no excuse. [Photo by NASA astronauts, orbiting the Moon.]  The "sphere" of a planet (such as the sphere of Saturn) encompasses the area defined by the orbit of the planet (bear in mind, however, that Steiner said such orbits are illusory). More properly, in Anthroposophical doctrine, a planet's "sphere" is the spiritual region presided over by the god who guides that planet. [R.R., 2010.] We will continue the story at "Evil" http://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/evil
◊◊◊◊ For Steiner's take on the Antichrist and Auras, see "Evil Ones" ◊◊◊◊
ENDNOTES
[1] Richard Seddon, THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY AND THE EARTH AS FORESEEN BY RUDOLF STEINER {hereafter TFOHATEAFBRS}, p. 29. [2] Rudolf Steiner, AT HOME IN THE UNIVERSE: Exploring Our Suprasensory Nature (SteinerBooks, 2000), p. 74. [3] Rudolf Steiner, AN OUTLINE OF OCCULT SCIENCE (Anthroposophical Literature Concern, 1922 — facsimile edition, Kessinger Publishing), p. 384. For a sketchy summary of ancient spheres, see Gary Lachman, RUDOLF STEINER (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2007), pp. 143-147. [4] AN OUTLINE OF OCCULT SCIENCE, p. 114. Concerning Steiner's use of planetary names such as Saturn or Old Saturn: Steiner said that the descriptions he gives in AN OUTLINE OF OCCULT SCIENCE are shifty: they are “deeply immersed in Maya and Illusion.” [Rudolf Steiner, THE INNER REALITIES OF EVOLUTION (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Company, 1953), p. 21] One of his advocates adds, “Steiner admits that in his written accounts he had to descend into the trappings of maya in order not to 'startle' the public.” [Gary Lachman, THE SECRET HISTORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS (Lindisfarne Press, 2003), pp. 288-289.] This raises at least two possibilities: ◊ Steiner's use of planetary names is misleading, or ◊ his denial that planetary names refer to planets is misleading. Lachman argues that when Steiner spoke of “Saturn,” Steiner meant the planet Saturn, in some sense. I agree. If Steiner wanted to avoid startling us, his use of planets' names was obviously not the way to go: The idea that we once lived in, or on, or around, or during Saturn is surely startling. The poop Steiner tried to shield from our eyes is something else. In brief, Steiner used the names of planets because that's what he meant, in a sense, as it were. (Lachman argues that “the real character of our previous planetary existences has ... to do with certain moral or existential states of conscious” [p. 289] that presumably would shock general readers.)
[5] Rudolf Steiner, THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: HIS MISSION AND OURS: Selected Lectures and Writings (SteinerBooks, 1994), p. 31. [6] Uriel is mentioned in the Apocrypha; he is the "Fire of God." [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/619806/Uriel] Call him Oriphiel, if you like. Or, under such names as Ofanim or Oethra, you might find a being who might equally well be called Oriphiel. [http://www.blessingscornucopia.com/Archangel_Oriphiel_Orifel_Ofanim_Ophanim_Oethra.htm] But it's a reach. If you'd like to consult an esoteric Anthroposophical lesson about a certain Oriphiel, you could go to http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/EsoClass01/19071205e01.html According to Steiner, Oriphiel draws his power from Saturn. Other archangels: Michael gets his power from the Sun; Anael, from Venus; Zachariel, from Jupiter; Raphael, Mercury; Samael, Mars; Gabriel, the Moon. [Rudolf Steiner, ESOTERIC LESSONS 1904-1909 (Steiner Books, 2007) p. 212.] [7] According to Steiner, Christ is the Sun God. The Antichrist is Sorat, the Sun Demon. [See "Was He Christian?" on this Web site.] Ahriman is not Sorat, but he may act as a sort of secondary Antichrist from time to time. Identifying Ahriman as the Antichrist is common. The following is part of a fascinating posting from July, 2009: “[T]he July 22, 2009 total solar eclipse could mark the occasion of the incarnation of Ahriman, known more widely as ‘Antichrist’ ... There are a number of other astrological aspects of the July 22 eclipse to suggest that it is a cosmic echo in our time of the event that Rudolf Steiner referred to as ‘the Mystery of Golgotha’ — the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ. Steiner emphasized that at the point of maximum solar eclipse, profound changes occur in the Earth's aura ... In 1924, Rudolf Steiner indicated that Japan is the apex of a tetrahedral form of the Earth with its curved sides tracing the paths of the Earth's active or formerly active volcano belts ... James Gillen suggests that the vision of the axis going from the Moon sphere through the Earth center is more than a mathematical alignment: ‘This is going through the tenth Sephirah (Malkuth) of the Tree of Life into the realm of the Mother, connecting the Mother with the cosmic light of the stars, which according to Rudolf Steiner rays through the Moon (the Moon is transparent for it).’” [Kevin Dann, “The July 22nd Solar Eclipse and the Riddle of 2012” http://www.realitysandwich.com/july_22nd_solar_eclipse ] What do you know? [8] TFOHATEAFBRS, p. 29. [9] TFOHATEAFBRS, p.41. [10] Rudolf Steiner, DIE GEISTIGEN HINTERGRÜNDE DES ERSTEN WELTKRIEGES {The Spiritual Background of the First World War}, p. 38. |
